Jungle Rules
by Scarlet Secret
Summary: During the first week they had spent at the treehouse after being stranded in the jungle Veronica had written down a list of ‘Jungle Rules’ that she told everybody they would be stupid not to follow no matter how patronising it sounded. Generally they had


Jungle Rules

During the first week they had spent at the treehouse after being stranded in the jungle Veronica had written down a list of 'Jungle Rules' that she told everybody they would be stupid not to follow no matter how patronising it sounded. Generally they had been well accepted.

Challenger, being a humanitarian (or so he said) and having a scientific interest in the inhabitants of the jungle had queried the rule _kill or be killed_ but Veronica had insisted that nothing else in their new home would offer the same compassion. He had tried to argue the point again but Summerlee had silently shushed him and amazingly he had gone quiet.

Roxton had glanced over the rules briefly, mostly out of courtesy for the lady, and summarised that he already knew them all. He was insulted at _don't go near the native women_ when he realised that all the other men had prior commitments at home and so that rule must have been directed at him. He didn't like to think who out of his companions had informed Veronica of his reputation back in London but he certainly had his suspicions.

Malone had read the rules a hundred times, committing to memory both the words themselves and every nuance of Veronica's handwriting. He can occasionally be heard reciting them and his favourite is _trust your instincts_. Nobody has ever trusted his capabilities before. He asked her to write them out again so he could keep a copy for his journal and smiling, she had given no thought to the notion he could copy them himself. The other have a inkling that this romance will not end well but the men are warmed by seeing young love in motion. The lone woman on the journey, isn't.

Marguerite doesn't even acknowledge that Veronica can write, let alone she has written something worth reading. And although she claims not to have read them she once scoffed at _don't get involved in things that don't concern you_. Veronica grows angry with this after two weeks and glues a copy of the rules in Marguerite's room while the heiress is elsewhere. In retaliation Marguerite leaves another list, twice the length of the rules, pinned on their hostess' door, detailing survival techniques for war-time and Veronica was unnerved, though she would never admit it, at the kind of horrible things Marguerite was willing to do to survive. She also couldn't work out exactly when Marguerite had put up the list; they had all been in the treehouse all day and Veronica thought she would have seen the older woman move but she hadn't. She didn't mention it to anybody and the following day Marguerite doesn't say anything until last thing at night when she hisses at Veronica "I don't need a child telling me how to survive, I'll be fine by myself."

Veronica is not above admitting, years later at least, that for the first few months Marguerite terrified her. She knew she wasn't the only one, she and Malone would share many a glance at some of the heiress's actions, and Marguerite doesn't make anything easy, referring to Veronica and Malone collectively as 'the children'. She does this until the incident with the cave in at the mountain, holding Malone's hand when she thought she was going to die she had hated herself for the way she treated him but even with what she believed to be her dying breath she couldn't force out an apology. After that she had never called him a child again.

Marguerite's dislike for Veronica takes a longer time to go away and afterwards she can't quite put her finger on why she hated the other woman so much to begin with. When they have to rescue the men from the Amazons she thinks of the rules for the first time in a year. When she's fighting Hippolyta she thinks of _kill or be killed_ and prays that the latter doesn't come true. Afterwards when she finds the woman with Roxton she thinks of _don't go near the native women_ and how true this has proven to be. Malone swears blind that he knew the Amazons were killing the men and she remembers _trust your instincts_ and when Veronica, Veronica of all people, insists they stay and help in the battle she remembers the advice of _don't get involved in things that don't concern you_ and thinks how hypocritical her friends really are.

There were of course more rules but they all get broken repeatedly.

_Don't go out into the jungle alone._

_Don't talk to strangers, no matter how friendly they seem._

_The most important thing is your life, everything else can be replaced._

_Don't taunt the dinosaurs._

_Don't get too sentimental or emotional about things, it can cost you your life. _

_Look after each other._

Marguerite finds herself reading through the rules in Malone's journal when he is away on his own and Veronica has vanished in the balloon and she misses both of them so much it hurts to cry and she thinks of them as children for the first time in years. This time she thinks of them as her children. In a really bizarre way. She meant it when she said she thinks she's going to be the only one left. She doesn't tell Challenger or Roxton that it's her greatest fear. In a moment of childish panic she is tempted to write another list of rules and first one would be _nobody else is allowed to go._

When the incident with Xan happens she forgets every rule she's ever known, including the ones she gave herself when she was forced to live alone. She forgets her first rule has always been _look after number one. _When she stands next to Roxton and has to choose she forgets that London exists for a minute and knows what her choice would have been, even if it hadn't been taken from under her nose.

Finn arrives and seems to live by her own rules not unlike Marguerite herself had for so long she'd forgotten how to live. She can't bear to watch somebody else be like her.

When Veronica comes back she re-reads Malone's journals once more and panics when she can't find his copy of the rules. Eventually she finds them pinned to Finn's wall. Finn can't even read.

"Oh, Marguerite drilled them into me."

Marguerite never confirms this and starts calling Finn a child. Finn doesn't seem to mind.

When she and John get trapped in the cave she thinks she is going to die again. This time she manages to say sorry, although she doesn't specify what for and John kisses her before she can start reciting the rules that have changed her life.

_Look after each other._

She thinks if she has to die there are worse places to do it than in John's arms. If Veronica were there she'd promise the other woman she wasn't being sentimental, she was just terrified.

There's no rule against it after all.


End file.
